The American International School of Jeddah utilizes a United States curriculum based on the AERO (American Education Reaches Out) standards and benchmarks developed by the U.S. State Department’s Office of Overseas Schools (A/OPR/OS) and the Overseas Schools Advisory Council.  Our curriculum is both rigorous and relevant, guiding students to see connections between subjects, and to become increasingly self-directed learners. 
At AISJ, when we develop curriculum, we keep simple, yet powerful questions at the forefront of our minds: What content do we want students to understand, what skills do we want students to demonstrate, and what dispositions do we want students to display now, and for the remainder of their lives? 
A powerful curriculum starts with the end in mind.  Teachers must understand their students’ destination before they begin the journey of instruction and learning.  Therefore assessment is the cornerstone of curriculum.  AISJ utilizes a variety of assessments, including classroom observations, standards based tests, performances and portfolios.  AISJ administers an external norm-referenced test, the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), 2-3 times yearly in grades 1-10 in order to assess students’ reading comprehension and math skills against their same-aged peers in public and private U.S. and international schools around the world, in order to find their zone of proximal development and to set individualized learning goals. 
In order for a school’s curriculum to be coherent and comprehensive, it must be vertically articulated.  Teachers must know not only what is taught in their grade, but what is taught in the levels below and above them.  Collaboration is key to achieving this goal.  Therefore, weekly professional development time is set aside for subject-area teachers to meet with their colleagues.  In addition, AISJ’s curriculum is reviewed regularly to test its relevance, to identify gaps and to sort redundancies from meaningful learning spirals.  Curriculum must be shared with all stakeholders in the learning process.  Students and parents should know what is being taught and why, and this information is shared at AISJ in a variety of school-home communication modes, including RENWEB and parent-teacher conferences.
Finally, curricular work is “never done,” and is always in the process of being researched, implemented and analyzed with continuous improvement in mind.  I look forward to discussing teaching and learning with you in person.  My office can be found in the high school administration building, or I can be contacted by email at kbrowngertz@aisj.edu.sa.